Western journal of nursing research
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This article describes common experiences of African American women breast cancer survivors through poetic analysis. Group-as-a-whole theory and empirical and interpretive phenomenology guided analysis of transcripts from three focus groups (n = 21) of African American breast cancer survivors. Familiarity with transcripts and themes led to awareness of poetic ways in which African American women described experiences. ⋯ Eleven poems describe the journey from diagnosis to survivorship as experienced by African American women. The poetry may raise levels of awareness of African American women's breast cancer survivorship experiences. Attention to subtleties that underpin culture within the context of health care environments may help health care providers to improve cultural competence.
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The purpose of this study is to explore attitudes and beliefs that affect decisions about prescribing and administering pain medications in older adults who live in long-term care (LTC), with a particular emphasis on those with cognitive impairment. At each of the four participating LTC facilities, data were gathered from three separate groups of health care professionals: physicians, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses. ⋯ The major themes that emerged from the data concerned pain assessment (lack of recognition of pain, uncertainty about the accuracy of pain assessment and diagnosis) and treatment (reluctance to use opioids, working to individualize pain treatments, issues relating to physician trust of the nurse on prescribing patterns). These findings may facilitate the development of innovative approaches to pain management in LTC settings.
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Comparative Study
A comparison of two pain measures for Asian American cancer patients.
Although two of the most commonly used multidimensional pain scales are the McGill Pain Questionnaire-Short Form (MPQ-SF) and the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form (BPI-SF), there has been little psychometric analysis of these tools used among ethnic minority populations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare psychometric properties of these two pain scales among 119 Asian American cancer patients. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the MPQ-SF and the BPI-SF were high (alpha = .85-.97). ⋯ Two factors were extracted for both instruments. Correlations between pain scores and the usage of pain medications were low for the MPQ-SF (r = .23-.33) and moderate for the BPI-SF (r = .40-.42). The results of this study indicated that, among Asian Americans, both the pain scales were internally consistent; some items in each instrument were redundant; and the BPI-SF is more valid than the MPQ-SF.
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One goal of Healthy People 2010 (2003) is to close the gap of disparities in access to care and health. The purpose of this descriptive exploratory study was to evaluate health status indicators in the children of itinerant carnival and migrant farmworkers aged birth to 12 years. ⋯ All forms were available in Spanish and English. A total of 97 children were recruited for this study: 45 carnival children and 52 migrant farmworker children.
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Clinical decision rules (CDRs) are decision support tools that synthesize evidence for use in bedside practice. They differ from other decision support tools in the methodological rigor with which they are developed. ⋯ The process of developing and testing CDRs is best undertaken by teams of researchers, with clinical nurses providing important input in both the development and testing. It's important that clinical nurses understand both the contributions of CDRs and their inherent limitations, as appropriate use of well-developed, well-validated CDRs will become more and more a necessity in evidence-based nursing.